Serena Williams imposes authority with crushing win

Serena Williams of the US returns to Alize Cornet of France during their second-round match at the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, yesterday.

Photo: AAP IMAGE

Serena Williams stamped her authority on the Brisbane International yesterday, when she crushed Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 6-2, 6-2.

On a day that saw second seed Maria Sharapova withdraw with an injured collarbone and fifth and sixth seeds Sara Errani and Petra Kvitova bundled out, Williams was all business as she disposed of Cornet in exactly one hour.

The 15-time Grand Slam winner broke Cornet in the first game of the match and was never troubled after that, as she broke the Frenchwoman once more in the first set and twice in the second for a comprehensive victory.

Williams had far too much firepower for Cornet, hitting 25 winners to four including six aces. One in the second set was clocked at 200kph.

The third-seeded American stepped up a gear from her -opening-round win over fellow countrywoman Varvara Lepchenko.

“She’s [Cornet] a former top 15 player and we’ve had a tough three-set match before, so I knew I had to play really well,” Williams said. “I tried to be more aggressive and tried to be more consistent.”

Sharapova was earlier forced to withdraw with a right collarbone injury.

The Russian world No. 2 sent scans of her injury to her doctor in New York, who advised her not to do any overhead training for at least a week.

“So to be fair, I haven’t really given myself a chance to pretty much hit any serves or anything over my head, I’ve just been practicing groundstrokes. So I just kind of ran out of time here,” she said.

It is the second year in a row that Sharapova has withdrawn from the tournament without playing a shot.

Last year, she skipped Brisbane because of an ankle injury and went straight to Melbourne to prepare for the Australian Open, where she finished runner-up to Victoria Azarenka.

Sharapova said she would do the same this year, passing up the opportunity of playing in Sydney next week to make sure she is fit for Melbourne.

Former Wimbledon champion Kvitova, who won in Brisbane in 2011, went down 6-4, 7-5 to Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Italy’s Errani lost in three sets to last year’s runner-up Daniela Hantuchova 4-6, 6-1, 7-5.

“It wasn’t my best tennis today and I think that it’s the beginning of the season, so I hoped that it could be better, for sure,” Kvitova said. “Right now I have still some space where I can improve and I hope that in Melbourne I will improve these things.”

Top seed and world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka plays her second-round match against German Sabine Lisicki today.

Australian qualifier John Millman set up a second-round clash against Andy Murray when he beat Japan’s Tatsumo Ito 6-4, 6-1 and Tommy Robredo of Spain edged American Ryan Harrison 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).

ASB CLASSIC

AFP, AUCKLAND

Normal service resumed at the ASB Classic women’s tennis tournament yesterday as the top two seeds, Agnieszka Radwanska and Julia Goerges, moved easily into the second round.

Radwanska, the top seed and world No. 4, quickly disposed of former Auckland champion Greta Arn 6-2, 6-2, while Goerges was in similar command against qualifier Anastasija Sevastova, winning 6-3, 6-4.

They were far more accomplished performances than seen on the opening day, when defending champion and fourth seed Zheng Jie, former world No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova and seventh seed Christina McHale were first round losers.